Fears ageing population and closed international borders will worsen aged care worker shortage across the south-west

Major reforms to aged care combined with the region's ageing population underpin the need for more workers.

The region's ageing population and major reforms in aged care will require significant growth across all areas of the healthcare and social assistance workforce to offset an increasing shortage of aged care workers across the south-west.

Great South Coast designated area migration agreement coordinator Stephen Hoy says growth in service demand across the aged care industry during the coronavirus pandemic had increased the already overwhelming demand for professionals and support workers.

"It's pretty bad at the moment but I suspect we've not seen the worst of it," Mr Hoy said.

"The longer it goes on and the longer borders remain closed, the tougher it gets."

He said 900 to 2000 new workers, including those in aged care would be needed by 2021 to satisfy demand, according to the 2018 Great South Coast Regional Skills Demand Profile.

The sector is one of south-west Victoria's largest and fastest growing industries, with about 6600 already employed across the south-west healthcare and social assistance areas as of 2017.

Mr Hoy said five new positions within the aged care sector had also been identified and were awaiting approval under the Great South Coast Designated Area Migration Agreement. The required roles specific to aged care include aged or disabled carer, nursing support worker, personal care assistant, enrolled nurse and registered nurse.

But he said employers in allied health had been reporting significant challenges to recruitment, including a shortage of skilled workers due to the closing of international borders.

"Warrnambool has enjoyed steady growth of about one per cent each year and of the past year's 352 new residents, about 210 were overseas migrants meaning two-thirds of the city's growth was from an overseas population," he said.

"With international borders closed, that pool of skilled overseas workers has been shut down so that means in terms of training staff to hit the ground and get out in and amongst aged care that's not been able to happen.

"That source for providers to get good qualified experienced workers, 18 months down the track has been closed for some time. So there's that natural attrition of an ageing population and an ageing workforce which combines to put more pressure on the whole sector."

Heywood Rural health chief executive officer Leigh Parker said the aged care facility had taken relocation into consideration in its recruitment activities.

"We're looking for a range of positions both short-term and long-term so we're certainly encouraging anyone who is willing to relocate to consider us as an employer of choice," he said.

"Like most in aged care we're experiencing a work force shortage particularly with respect to registered and enrolled nurses but I don't think that's uncommon at the moment.

"It's become more problematic as the pandemic continues."

He said restrictions on the number of locations aged care workers were able to work across worsened the situation.

"Workforce mobility adds some extra challenges. Of course, that also impacts on the ability to recruit nurses who traditionally may have worked at two or more organisations so that's certainly been a bit of a challenge at times.

"It's one of the aspects we need to take into consideration when we're going into recruitment because we need to stick to the rules of limiting employees to one organisation or facility."

Mr Parker said employees would be given a certificate of appreciation on National Aged Care Employee Day this Saturday for the work they had done in adapting to post-pandemic restrictions.

"We'll be giving every employee a certificate of appreciation and a 'thanks for caring' badge," he said.

"We're having an afternoon tea for the entire staff just to recognise their continued efforts in providing care to our aged-care residents which they do a fantastic job of, even more-so during the pandemic where there's been a change of rules."

Mercy Place Warrnambool service manager Helen Paris said the aged care facility would also hold a celebration for workers after a particularly challenging past 12 months.

"It's for recognising everybody that works within care," she said.

"On Saturday we're providing some treats for our staff, including morning and afternoon tea and providing small little gifts and thank-you notes to all our staff.

"Any opportunity to thank and acknowledge staff within any aged care or health care environment is a wonderful opportunity and our staff in particular are very dedicated and they've put everyone else before themselves before they come in each day."

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